Cisco Urges Enterprises to Embrace AI for Security, Highlights Open Source & Phased Transition
Cisco is actively advocating for enterprises to integrate Artificial intelligence into their security strategies, emphasizing both the duty to make AI models accessible and the critical need to protect the AI supply chain. The company is demonstrating this commitment through open-source initiatives and a platform approach designed to minimize disruption for existing customers.
A key component of Cisco’s strategy is democratizing access to AI. According to Cisco representatives, making these models available is a corporate responsibility, and it empowers communities to begin leveraging AI specifically for defense applications. To that end, Cisco has integrated the widely-used open-source antivirus tool, ClamAV, with Hugging Face, a platform hosting over two million AI models. This integration ensures every model is scanned for malware, addressing the growing concern of AI supply chain security.
Beyond malware scanning,Cisco has released open-source security models,including one specifically designed for time series data analysis on Splunk. This model correlates time series data with security incident data to identify potential threats. The company reports significant traction, with over 200,000 downloads on Hugging Face and resellers already building applications based on the technology.
Customer Response & a Shift in Focus
Following the product launches at Cisco Live,customer reactions have fallen into three categories: excited adoption,cautious evaluation through Proof of Concepts (POCs),and skeptical verification. Cisco notes a significant decrease in the number of skeptical customers over the past three years, correlating with improvements in financial performance and market perception.
Cisco is deliberately focusing on a six-month innovation window, prioritizing delivering tangible value over long-term roadmaps. “The payload is so large that we have enough to discuss for six months,” a representative stated, acknowledging the challenge of keeping customers informed about the rapid pace of innovation.
The company is actively shifting it’s approach from a hardware-centric model to a customer-centric one. Rather than advocating for a complete overhaul of existing infrastructure, Cisco is emphasizing a phased transition. The strategy acknowledges the shift to a hyper-distributed security landscape, moving beyond perimeter-based firewalls while still providing efficient management for existing firewall deployments.
A Platform Approach to Modern Security
Cisco is offering a fully refreshed firewall lineup alongside new technologies like Multicloud Defense, which focuses on zero-trust principles for both user-to-application and application-to-application traffic. The company has also developed Hypershield technology and a revolutionary Smart Switch, all managed through a unified Security Cloud Control platform with an AI Canvas interface.
this platform approach allows customers to adopt new technologies at their own pace, starting with firewalls, expanding to multicloud Defense, incorporating Hypershield enforcement points with Cilium for observability, and finally adding Smart Switches. Cisco aims to minimize complexity and cognitive load by building upon existing investments.
Partner activation as a Key to Success
Looking ahead, Cisco is prioritizing partner activation, with significant announcements planned for its Partner Summit in November in San Diego.The company recognizes the crucial role of its global partner network in driving AI adoption and turning it into a revenue prospect. “Sustained, consistent emphasis is needed to get the entire reseller engine moving,” a Cisco representative emphasized, highlighting the importance of a strong partner ecosystem for realizing its long-term AI vision in cybersecurity.
